


The Concerns of a (Not) Dying Man

by LilacsandFreedom



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Spoilers, death mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 00:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6032139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacsandFreedom/pseuds/LilacsandFreedom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You would be amazed at how much you can think about in ten-or-less seconds before collapsing!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Concerns of a (Not) Dying Man

Surrounded by burning metal and the echos of the previous chaos, Rhys only had a moment to really think about the situation at hand. Mainly divided into two parts, it went a bit like this:

**Pros:** Handsome Jack was dead. Undeniably, absolutely, unbelievably dead. Deader than dead. The deadest dead you could possible get. Very dead. This was a good thing. Hopefully it would stick. Furthermore, he was out of Rhys’s head for good, which was even better. Jack was dead and he, for the moment, was not. This was a _very_ good thing.

**Cons:** To sum this portion up, one would need to spell out the simultaneously inhuman and all-too-human noise that can be roundaboutly described as something more-or-less along the lines of “Aarghckh!”. How long this sound is and its specific volume depends on the person; in Rhys’s case, it was a very loud and fairly drawn out mental scream because his mouth didn’t really want to work at the moment. It was a sound of pain, evacuating adrenaline, and the slightest amount of relief, mainly due to the fact that whatever situation required the adrenaline was most likely over by that point. It was, however, mostly pain. He had just ripped himself apart after all and much like the inevitable hangover after an out-of-hand office party, the pain associated with tearing out cybernetic parts with your more-or-less bare hands entered the room to clean up after the adrenaline gained from a life or death scenario, who had made a mess of the place, as always. _I hope you’re happy_ . said a tiny, blessedly not-Jack voice at the back of his addled mind _Just look at what you’ve done to yourself this time._

( _And look what you’ve done_ added a far less helpful, though also thankfully not-Jack, voice _Was it worth it? Was he right?_ it asked. He couldn’t think about that now, there were other things to be worried about.)

He did, however, admit that it felt good to be rid of Jack. Not dopamine-injecting chair good or “all my parts intact and not in the middle of a burning wasteland” good, but good enough to keep his head above water, if only for a brief flash of thought.

The only problem was that it was also very likely that he could die right then and there. He briefly entertained the thought of dying, but it seemed to be that dying was the sort of thing that happened to other people. All things considered, he probably should’ve been dead about a hundred times over by now so, really, the universe must’ve been looking out for him or something. Dying, it seemed, really _was_ something that happened to other people! However, more likely than not, rather than the universe paying him special attention, he’d just been very, very lucky. Stupid lucky, to be completely accurate. His friends probably helped with that. They were also a very good reason to not die. Probably one of the better reasons, but it was also very likely that...well, he didn’t really want to think about it.

(And, of course, he had been ditched. Loyalty? What loyalty? It’s not like he hadn’t tried to save their lives several times. Okay, the key-word was _tried_ most of the time, and sure, yeah, for a while it was a shaky alliance at-best, but he thought there’d been at least _some_ amount of development there. Maybe.)

The short of the long, it seemed, was that dying was not a good idea, he wasn’t sure why he’d even considered- oh, wait, yeah, the whole ripping yourself apart to get rid of a psycho trying to possess/kill you thing! Of course! Kind of hard to forget! Wow, he was in a _lot_ of pain right now! Well, it wasn’t like he had much of an choice in the matter anyway. Furthermore, it seemed that his time for thinking (all ten-or-less seconds of it) was over.

Unconsciousness. Now _that_ was something he could get behind! Though, of course, it wasn’t really like he had much choice in that matter either.

Even so, the tiny voice in the back of his head made one point very clear.

_I am not going to die._

Dying was something that happened to other people.

**Author's Note:**

> I finished playing the game only a bit ago and had a lovely time! So, of course I had to write a little something to show my appreciation, now didn't I?  
> Just a quick thing, but I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
